The Ebb and Flow of Steven Tyler

I’m a huge Aerosmith fan. Ever since I first heard their Get A Grip album, I’ve been hooked. I know every word to most of their songs and am watching for their U.S. farewell tour dates like a hawk.

Steven Tyler, the “demon of screamin’” was the driving force behind the band’s image, personality and smash hits, with his screeching vocals and crazy antics. Since the band’s inception in 1970, they’ve racked up 32 music awards, including four Grammys, and nearly 80 nominations.

They also faced tumultuous times, struggling with drug addiction, falling in and out of rehab and heated band breakups (Joe Perry Project, anyone?) along with a few dud albums.

So despite all of this raging success, and subsequent failure, how has Steven Tyler remained relevant after nearly 50 years? He’s reinvented himself, over and over again.

In the 80s, the band created the first-ever rock/hip-hop collaboration with Run DMC. Walk This Way was controversial at the time but broke down racial barriers in the music industry. They performed one of the greatest Super Bowl performances of all times with a collection of artist across all genres. The band produced a blues album, Honkin’ On Bobo, in 2004. Steven appeared as a judge on American Idol, which skyrocketed Aerosmith downloads on iTunes. He released a country album just last year.

His net worth is reported at nearly $130 million, which is actually higher than his band mates. Why? Because Steven broke out into new endeavors rather than just remaining the legendary rock star.

To remain relevant in whatever it is that you do, means you need to reinvent yourself a time or two. Staying stagnant will kill off your relevancy quicker than you can image.

I'll be chatting with my friend and career coach, Diane Bemis-McClay, about career reinvention on Thursday, Nov. 16 at 7p EST for the next Fired Up with the Expert. Diane's reinvented her career a few times over so she's an expert on the subject and works with people every day to navigate through tough times. Hope you'll join us for this free, live chat!

Dream on, friends,Megan

P.S. - If you missed my chat with Liz Nolley Tillman about performance punishment in the workplace, you can see the replay here. It was fantastic!